We recently connected with Jayla Ford and have shared our conversation below.
Jayla, so good to have you with us today. We’ve always been impressed with folks who have a very clear sense of purpose and so maybe we can jump right in and talk about how you found your purpose?
I’ve always had a passion to create. As a child, I remember I would make drawings of my favorite tv characters or animals and give them to my family. My great-grandmother, my Nana, still has my drawing of fishes on her fridge from when I was 5 years old. Art and creating things from my perspective became something I learned to do and formed an even bigger love for as I got older.
When I truly found a glimpse of my purpose, I was in 7th grade. This was before having a camera even came into the picture. Vine was super popular at the time, and I loved seeing people my age make video edits of their favorite actors and actresses. From there, I downloaded Sony Vegas Pro and Adobe After Effects and became intrigued with finding fun ways to edit videos and tell stories. It was a new art form that I found myself loving to do.
When I went to high school, I began to wonder how cool it would be if I could use my own work to edit and create stories. From there, I wanted to get a camera. At 16 years old, I couldn’t afford a $700-1000 camera, so this desire seemed too far out of reach. Fortunately for me, my older cousin was gifted a camera by his parents that he no longer wanted to use. He gave it to me to borrow and because of him, I had the chance to explore photography and videography. I’ll forever be grateful for him playing a pivotal role in me having the resource to explore my potential.
Now having a camera, I couldn’t figure out where to start. My brother used to play for a 7 versus 7 football team called Heroh. I used to go to almost all of his games and with my new-found camera, I wanted to test out what I could do by shooting one of his tournaments. I met with the founder of the organization, Christopher James, or CJ, and he grilled me a bit on where it is that I’d like to take this passion, and I said “I’m just seeing where it goes.”
From that day, I realized that I loved the environment of shooting sports content. From capturing the moments between my brothers and his teammates to being excited to sit down and create something from my own perspective with it, I never thought that I could find something so fulfilling.
Thanks, so before we move on maybe you can share a bit more about yourself?
I am a 23 year old Sports Videographer & Photographer, currently working for the Big Ten Network as a Multi-Platform Video Producer at The Ohio State University. Within my career over the last 6 years, I have discovered a love for story telling and creating innovative ideas that open people’s perspective to enhancing sports coverage. What makes my career path so special is that as a female creative, my eyes have been opened to the emense amount of doors that I am equally eligible to be in and my contribution to pushing for diversity in the sports industry.
Throughout my career I have had the opportunity to be mentored by amazing people and gain connections within the industry that have been pivotal to my success. I know that my teenage-self would be immensely proud of my work and how far I have come within my journey. A huge amount of time, sacrifice, and hard work has gone into what it is that I’ve produced and I am always looking for new ways to keep my passion flowing and never doing the same thing twice. From having collegiate and professional experience, I hope to continue to produce video and photo content in the sports industry, collaborate with different creatives, and become my ultimate vision of a story teller.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
One thing that I have truly had to learn throughout my career is to not make myself small in order to fit into large spaces. I discovered within myself that when I became met with great opportunities, I would often wonder why and begin to dim myself down. This was so that I wouldn’t “do too much” or “not fit in” when in reality, those qualities and skills were the things that made me stand out and ultimately resulted in me getting said opportunities. I’ve come to realize that I should not feel the need to minimize that by even an inch. As a black woman, I believe that I have no room to self-depricate myself in a spaces that I am more than deserving to be in. Confidence is key as a creative and even if you do not feel 100% qualified for the opportunies you are met with, those doors wouldn’t be opening if you weren’t meant to go through them.
Another key lesson that I have stood strong on is art integrity. I feel that as creatives, we are always met with people projecting their opinions and providing unsolicitied advice on where you should take your career. I remember when there were moments where I would take on opportunites outside of sports by covering events and parties just to make extra money. I never felt more miserable. The concept of working those kinds of events did not fulfill any sort of passion for me and when my passion feels like work, a fraction of the love for it gets lost. I read a book called Reel by Kennedy Ryan and in that book was a quote that said “Don’t use your gift for shit you hate to survive.” and I believe that to be so important when you have a set vision as a creative. This may contradict my previous statement about not putting yourself in a box, but when you’re the one that’s created the box, you get to decide what fits in it. Therefore, I heavily believe that it is important to stand strong in where you’d like to take your career. The money will come eventually, but your passion cannot be exchanged for a dollar sign. And once you find a way to make a living with your passion, you won’t be working a day in your life.
A huge quality that I’ve found to take me far is being genuine. Within the sports industry, it’s easy to allow numbers and analytics to get to you. This can make you judge yourself and even others at times. But in the end, everyone’s trying to make it to whatever goals it is that they have. It goes a long way when you lift other creatives up, find a community within this space, and pour into it. Good people want to see good people win. In this industry you’ll have the opportunity to meet so many great people that are where you’d like to be, or even be that person for others that they gain inspiration from. This can produce great conversations and build connections with people from so many walks of life and I just don’t think that this concept is appreciated enough. All in all, treating everyone like human beings and taking the time to get to know others goes a long way. You’ll never know the impact you can make on another creative by simply speaking life into their work and sending them kind words about something they’ve taken the time to create. This industry can be so competitive but at the end of the day, the least we can be is kind. You never know what rooms could be mentioning your name just off the simple fact of how you treated someone or the genuine connections you made. Talent can’t always speak to that.
Is there a particular challenge you are currently facing?
I think that a potential challenge that I am facing is learning to be grateful to say goodbye. I was met with a dream opportunity, a position that was on my 2024 vision board and all. Unfortunately, I had to turn it down due to my circumstances and it truly hurt to do. It instilled alot of doubt within myself intially on whether I made the right decision or if I could be met with something like that again. However, I changed my perspective and realized how lucky I was to have been able to be given such a great opportunity at this point in my career that saying no would be this hard. I also realized that in that moment, God was giving me a rose to prepare me for a bouquet. Although the stars just couldn’t align, he provided me a glimpse of my own potential and where I qualify within my career. I wasn’t going to internalize the magnitude of my gift by the positon of my circumstance. I trust that something like that will cross my path again and I will contnue to see myself as worthy of it, rather than count myself out.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fordfilmprod.myportfolio.com/work
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fordfilmprod/
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jayla-ford-687b2b203/
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/fordfilmprod?lang=en
Image Credits
Emma Johnson and Adé Miller
